Saturday, May 16, 2015

Poem of the Day Double Feature: “Unmonstered” and “Letter to My Frozen Wife” by Robert Borski

Songs of Eretz Poetry
Review is
pleased to present “Unmonstered” and “Letter to My Frozen Wife” by Robert
Borski.Although his short
stories have appeared in Analog and Fantasy &
Science Fiction, and he's written two critical examinations of Gene Wolfe's
fiction (Solar Labyrinth and The Long and the Short of It),
Robert Borski did not start writing poetry until he was well into his sixth
decade. Much to his surprise, he's had over two hundred poems published since
then, a good portion of which have appeared in Asimov's, Dreams
& Nightmares, Strange Horizons, and Star*Line, as
well as a first collection from Dark Regions Press, Blood Wallah, and frequent appearances in the Songs of
Eretz venues. He has
been nominated for the Rhysling Award ten times and the Dwarf Stars Award
thrice. He still lives in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, the town of his birth,
where he continues to toddle toward senility and works for the local
university.

Unmonstered

Robert Borski

Rotwang, Henry
Jekyll,

Victor
Frankenstein:

these, you
claimed,

were your role
models,

but unmonstered,

as I clamber
down

from the cold
slab

of your bed,

I feel no more
transformed

than I did
before

you took me --
no Eve

with a found
inner golem

or Neanderthal
other --

just a sad party
girl

watching her
manic,

blue-eyed lover

tear out his
hair

and weeping

like the mad
scientist

he never was nor
will be.

Poet’s Notes: Not so long ago, a woman I was mildly interested in dating asked
me to write a poem about her, whereupon she would evaluate my date-worthiness.
Things did not go so well after this point; perhaps it was the references to
Eva Braun. At any rate, transmogrified in my imagination, the episode did
prompt me to think about a similar request made by a similar woman, only not of
some half-baked poet manqué this time, but a would-be mad scientist (not that
there's always a difference).

Editor’s Note: There is something
universal in the message of this poem--a kind of song for all the failures who
dare to keep dreaming (and the dreamers who dare to keep failing). I
love the word “unmonstered” that Borski has coined--his use of poetic license
here is so much better than “untransformed” or “unchanged” would have been. “Unmonstered” was first published in the
April 2014 issue of Songs of Eretz Poetry
E-zine.

Poet’s Notes: I've had enough reminders of my
mortality over the years to wonder how I'd like the final disposition of my
remains to go. Should I, for example, be buried in the family plot? Or should I
strive for something more exotic--be frozen like Ted Williams or Walt Disney,
or have my terminal ash compressed into some sort of blingy gem, or be rocketed
into space? If only, like some latter day Cheops, I could have a pyramid built
for me or better still be mummified. Then I could pretty much take
it easy and enjoy the afterlife, at least until my soul was weighed in the
final balance.

Oh, wait …

Editor’s Note: So many different colors
of pigments, paints, and Crayolas have interesting names (remember burnt
umber?), so why not “mummy brown?” I think Walt Whitman would have liked
the concept of being “reborn” as a painting of a whore. Nevertheless,
this poem should make anyone think twice about cryogenics. “Letter to My Frozen Wife” was first
published in the April 2014 issue of Songs
of Eretz Poetry E-zine.

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